MP's anger as state bears cost of any Sellafield disaster

Taxpayers have been left with unlimited liability amounting to billions of pounds should there be a repeat of a nuclear accident at Sellafield under a deal signed with a US-led consortium which takes over the decommissioning of the waste facility from November 24. The indemnity even covers accidents and leaks that are the consortium's fault.

A row has broken out in parliament over the government's decision to sign the deal after it was revealed that the former energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, appeared to have broken Treasury guidelines by failing to inform MPs properly with the result that no backbencher could object.

The former minister - now the government's climate change envoy - rushed the deal through parliament just before the summer recess. There was no ministerial statement, no document detailing the proposals placed in the House of Commons library and no opportunity for MPs to raise questions.

He used emergency procedures claiming that the consortium, made up of the American company URS Washington, French firm Areva and the UK company Amec, had threatened to walk away unless Britain waived its rights to charge companies the first £140m for the costs of any accident. The contract is worth £6.5bn over five years and could be renewed for a further 12 years. The minister said the deal had to be completed by the beginning of October before parliament reconvened.

Wicks consulted only the chairs of two parliamentary committees, ignoring Treasury guidance that he should issue a statement to MPs and place the details in the House of Commons library.

His arguments persuaded Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, who waived his right to object because of the short timescale. Peter Luff, chairman of the business and regulatory reform select committee, had left it to Leigh to respond.

Both MPs were under the impression that other MPs could object because details of the deal had been placed in the House of Commons library. They were not put there until October 14, 75 days after the time any MP could raise questions.

Now Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, who raised the failure properly to inform parliament with the speaker, is expected to be granted a debate on the matter. He said yesterday: "This is an outrage. The taxpayer has now been left with an unlimited liability while the consortium will make hundreds of millions of pounds of profit on the deal."

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "There is only an extremely small possibility of the indemnity ever being used and so the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority assessed that the benefits of engaging the contractor would far outweigh the small risk that the indemnity may be called upon. Due to an oversight by the department there was a delay in sending this minute to the House library."